I'm slowly recovering from this flu so I went out and worked with Teddy for the first time in days; this was prompted by me looking out the window to find him rounding up our cows. The poor boy must be a little bored.
I've be thinking about how I'm going to tackle his mounting problem and head tossing at a canter problem but as I wasn't riding today I started work on the mounting.
I took him out with my carrot stick and on a 12 foot lead and did some ground work with him. He started off distracted by the paddock across the road which I have discovered has a horse in it now so there were no surprises there, however what was a surprise was the neighbouring property's cows held a little more appeal to him. He is totally fascinated by cows the weird horse! So this time to get him focused I had him trotting along side me as I jogged and stopping at my side when asked. Quickly we went on to our regular ground work but this time I included the mounting coffee table in the mix.
I stood on the coffee table and got him to stand still beside it, if he stepped sideways I took the carrot stick and tapped his far hind quarters toward me. At first he resisted and just kept walking around the coffee table. As soon as he got to the right spot in a mounting position I praised him with heaps of rubs, jumped off the coffee table and took him to do another activity. Then I went back to the coffee table and repeated the exercise but adding a wobble of his withers to insure his feet were planted. When it worked, again I praised him, jumped off the coffee table and played a different game. Back at the coffee table we ended with me draping my body over his back. He stood still for just a moment and then I took the pressure off and gave him praise and a bit of liquorice! We played a few more games and then called it a day.
Teddy did pretty good today though there was some resistance at times. I'm sure after a few lessons he will get the idea of what I expect of him. Once that happens I will add other things around the paddock that I might like to mount from and teach him to allow me to drape myself over his back at each new area so that he doesn't associate the coffee table as the place he's getting jumped on, but also a place he might have some fun and affection.
When I go for a ride I will discover if this all translates into actually mounting in the saddle. I can't see why it wouldn't.
Well done Teddy Bear!
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